Sean McLaughlin — Options trading, implied volatility, & trading truths

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Hello everybody, our guest today is Sean McLaughlin, aka @chicagosean on social media.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Sean is the chief options strategist for All Star Charts and Senior Market Strategist at Trade Ideas. He&rsquo;s been trading for over 20 years starting out as a prop trader during the late 90s, founded a hedge fund shortly thereafter, and since transitioned primarily to trading options.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In this episode we talk about the tech boom of the 1990s, some of the bad habits Sean picked up during those years, and also some of the similarities between those markets and the present day.&nbsp;</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">We then geek out on options, and discuss Sean&rsquo;s framework for placing option trades, how equity traders can start using options, gamma squeezes and a whole lot more. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Please enjoy this conversation with my friend, </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">Sean McLaughlin</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">.</span></p> <p><strong>Key learning points</strong></p> <ul style="list-style-type: disc;"> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Message volume on Stocktwits tends to get very loud at turning points</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Level II quotes aren&rsquo;t as telling and powerful as they used to be</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><span style="font-weight: 400;">2021 markets do resemble the euphoria in the 1990s, just in smaller pockets, and not quite as widespread</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Trading is really hard, the majority of people who attempt to make a living at trading cannot</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><span style="font-weight: 400;">The mechanics of trading is pretty easy, what&rsquo;s hard is t